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Girl says she lied about attempted abduction

After being questioned, the girl says a man followed her around a Tampa skating rink but never grabbed her arm.

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published August 25, 2005

TAMPA - Turns out, a 12-year-old girl's story of how a strange man followed her around a Tampa skating rink and later tried to abduct her was only partly true.

Tampa police Sgt. Julie Massucci said two detectives have determined that the man was at United Skates of America on Saturday, but he left when a manager asked him to and didn't return.

The girl said the middle-aged man came back and grabbed her arm - leaving only when she screamed and kicked him in the leg.

"The girl embellished the story and made it out to be a lot worse than it was," said Massucci, who leads the department's family violence unit. "This subject never tried to abduct her."

Detective Tony Zambito said the man, who has not been located, never even talked to the girl and her four girlfriends. The girls did think he was staring at them and following their movements around the rink, Zambito said.

"She said she was concerned that maybe he was going to do something to someone else," he said. "But there was no contact, no criminal activity."

Massucci said she has asked the State Attorney's Office to consider whether the girl should be charged with filing a false police report, a misdemeanor.

Massucci said it is important to send children the message that police will not tolerate made-up, exaggerated accounts. The lies drain law enforcement resources and fuel public paranoia at a time when parents are already rattled by fatal kidnappings such as that of Citrus County's Jessica Lunsford.

"Every year, especially when school starts, we get these cases," she said. "And 99 percent of them are false. Either they're late for school, or they're skipping school."

In Saturday's incident, the 12-year-old told Tampa police the man bothered her and her friends inside the skating rink at 5121 N Armenia Ave., so she went to the rink manager. He asked the man to leave, and the man complied, Massucci said.

The girl said the man returned at 4:40 p.m. and grabbed her arm.

Zambito said the story fell apart when he interviewed the rink manager, the girl and her friends.

Investigators determined that the man spends time at the rink and was seen there the week before by the rink's manager. But the girl's account did not jibe with those of her friends and other witnesses, and she eventually admitted she had made up the part about the man returning to the rink.

"This was a very serious allegation, and we spent numerous hours on this investigation," Massucci said. "That took two detectives away from other cases that need to be investigated."

Among those cases: the reported attempted abduction of a 7-year-old boy in the Amscot parking lot at 4601 N Armenia Ave. on Saturday, a few hours before the skating rink incident. Massucci said detectives have not had time to confirm whether that was, in fact, a kidnapping attempt.

Investigators still want to speak with the man who hangs out at United Skates of America.

"What are his intentions?" Massucci said. "Let's just find out why he goes skating."

Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at 813 226-3373 or svansickler@sptimes.com

[Last modified August 25, 2005, 00:47:02]